CARNIVAL IS “WE THING” - PART 8

The Original Passion Plays

     The ancient Egyptians were the first people in recorded history to develop theatrical presentations. The Greeks are perhaps the best known followers of the Egyptians in the matter of the theatre. However, there is a mystery play, a Passion Play, which was a central part of the festival tradition in Babylon, Mesopotamia. It should be pointed out that this Mesopotamian theatrical tradition comes after Egypt, but before Greece.  And there is on record in the British Museum the script of a Babylonian Passion Play.

     Ancient Babylon is located precisely in present-day Iraq. The Babylonian Passion Play tells of “the savior-god Bel of Babylonia.” The script of the play, written on a cuneiform tablet which is at least four thousand years old, can be seen in the British Museum, So it is for real. The Play is divided into ten scenes: I. Bel is taken prisoner; II. Bel is tried in the Hall of Justice; III. Bel is smitten; IV. Bel is led away to the mount; V. with Bel are taken two malefactors, one of whom is released; VI. after Bel has gone to the mount the city breaks out into tumult; VII. Bel’s clothes are carried away; VIII. Bel goes down into the mount and disappears from life; IX. a weeping woman seeks him at the gate of burial; X. Bel is brought back to life. (Man, God, and Civilization, 125-26).

     The white American film maker, Mel Gibson, was really following a tradition which was invented in Africa when, in 2004, he gave to the world a Passion Play in the form of a movie of the same name.

     The written records from Babylonian civilization which still exist only go back some four thousand years. In order to maintain its dominance of the world, Europe would like to have most, if not all, of the monuments from Babylon lodged in museums in Europe and the United States. It is for this reason that when the United States and British military invaded Iraq on 19 March 2003, they allowed the museums of Iraq to be looted. There is clear evidence that the vast majority of the pieces contained in these Iraqi museums were not destroyed as the Western press reported. Instead, the pieces, the patrimony of the Iraqi people, were for the most part spirited away to Israel, the United States and Britain.

     The Babylonian Passion Play represented a continuation of the tradition established in Kemet at the very beginning of civilization. The centerpiece of the festival in honor of Wosir was a mystery play, that is to say, a Passion Play, which was performed principally in the holy cities up in the south of Egypt. Our ancestors in ancient Egypt looked to the south, to the very heart of Africa, as their original homeland.

     In the Passion Play of the Kemetic festival for Wosir, the Pharaoh, the priests and officials, as well as the common folk, participated. The play involved the movement of all the participants in procession through a public space. The play reenacted Wosir’s suffering and death at the hands of his brother Set. And it proclaimed Wosir’s resurrection, his ultimate triumph over death. The Pharaoh played the part of Wosir, his soldiers played the part of Wosir’s entourage. The common people played the part of Set’s entourage.

TO BE CONTINUED